Article: 14140 of alt.games.mk Path: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu!bloom-beacon.mit.edu!spool.mu.edu!howland.reston.ans.net!swiss.ans.net!solaris.cc.vt.edu!news.duke.edu!concert!bigblue.oit.unc.edu!jpickett From: jpickett@med.unc.edu (James E. Pickett) Newsgroups: alt.games.mk Subject: STORY: Sub-Zero (08/09) Date: 12 Sep 1994 20:51:15 GMT Organization: UNC-CH School of Medicine Lines: 245 Distribution: world Message-ID: <352f03$8g0@bigblue.oit.unc.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: cahaba.med.unc.edu Originator: jpickett@cahaba * * * * * NOTE: More fan fiction. Standard disclaimers apply. DO NOT try this at home. Sub-Zero, Part 8 > "Lui Kang, come forward!" > "Good luck, Lui!" I said. > Kang looked back at me, smiled, and walked towards the combat >area. He was going to fight Baraka, the seven foot tall behemoth. "Round one. FIGHT!" Kung Lao, who was sitting behind me, stood up and took the seat next to me, where Lui Kang had formerly sat. "Have you fought Mileena yet?" he asked. "No." "I noticed you did not pay much attention to the fight. You should have. She does not fight like Kitana." "Where is Kitana, anyway?" I asked. "Jax killed her." "Oh." We stopped talking to watch the rest of the match. Kang was fast....very fast. Even though Baraka was armed with three feet long blades on each arm, he was no match for the Shaolin monk. He only got in one hit of consequence. When Kang was jumping towards him, he extended both his blades and started slicing up and down. Lui Kang was suspended in mid air, as pieces of skin were furiously hacked away, blood spraying everywhere. I winced as he fell to the ground. I expected that to be the end of the round, but Kang stood up and continued fighting. I was impressed. Kang shot a fireball at Baraka's chest, hitting his mark. Baraka held his hands over his face, only to be hit in the knees with another fireball. He fell to the ground with a loud thud. "Lui Kang wins." Kang waited silently as the floating priests healed Baraka with the touch of a glowing rod. "Round two. FIGHT!" I noticed Kung Lao was not watching the fight. "Excuse me," I said, "but I thought you said we should watch the fight." I received no response. I followed his gaze. He was staring at Shang Tsung. There was no emotion in his face, he just continued to stare. "Lao, can you hear me?" I said. "Shang Tsung murdered hundreds of my ancestors. He killed my father, and took his soul as I watched from behind a tree." "How old were you?" "Four years old. That day, I vowed to avenge my father's death and free his soul from that devil" "That sounds familiar." I said. "If I have the chance to kill him, I will not hesitate to do it. I am, however, much more concerned about Shao Kahn!" Lao said, shifting his gaze. "If he is not stopped, all of mankind will suffer an eternity of darkness." "Baraka wins." I looked up, a bit surprised, to see Baraka standing there with his extended blades crossed in front of him. "Kang is a fool!" said Lao. "He should not fight Baraka on his terms." "Round three. FIGHT!" "Lao, what were you saying about Mileena?" I asked. Kung Lao proceeded to tell me of Mileena's fighting style of teleport kicking and ground rolling. "FINISH HIM!" I looked over, expecting to see Baraka swaying back and forth, with Kang, standing in a victory pose. Unfortunately, I was wrong. Baraka had won. He extended his blades and pulled his arms back, ready to strike. "NO!" yelled Kung Lao, standing up. Baraka plunged his blades into Lui Kang's chest as he let out a scream of agony. Blood sprayed from his chest and back. As Baraka lifted him up off the ground, Lui Kang slid down the blades, twitching. "Baraka wins! Fatality!" Throwing Lui Kang to the ground, Baraka raised his bloodied hands above him, bringing them down in a victory pose. Kung Lao started running towards Baraka, hat in hand. "RESTRAIN HIM!" Yelled Shao Kahn. Three priests piled on top of Kung Lao, then four, five, six, seven.... One of them staggered back nursing his groin. One of the priest standing next to me floated in to join the fracas. Kung Lao burst from their grasp, only to have two of them force him back to the ground. The crowd was cheering loudly. I turned my attention from the spectacle to Lui Kang's body. One of the men at Shao Kahn's side walked towards him. It was Shang Tsung. He closed his 'eyes' and extended his hands. A green mist started to float from Kang's body towards the evil wizard. Tsung was stealing his soul! I looked around, seeing only one priest guarding me, but his attention was on the commotion caused by Kung Lao. I slowly grabbed the chair next to me, then sprung up and spun around, breaking it across the back of the priest's head. He fell to the ground unconscious. I then turned my attention towards Shang Tsung. I had little time to act, so I launched a blast of cold at him. His skin turned blue as he froze where he stood. A hush fell over the crowd. The green mist dissipated and was gone. Slowly, the blue tint faded from Shang Tsung. "I've lost him!" yelled Tsung. "His soul has discorporated! I'VE LOST HIM!!!!!" The commotion caused by Kung Lao stopped. All eyes turned towards me. Shang Tsung seethed. He looked like he was going to explode. Slowly, he pointed at me. "KILL HIM!" he yelled. Frantically, I looked around. I spotted a sewer grate in the ground to my left. Turning, I ran towards it. Blasts of fire exploded behind me and next to me. Just as I reached the sewer grate, I felt a hand on my shoulder forcing me to a stop. I turned to see one of the priests floating above me, emitting some sort of energy into my body. I couldn't move. Suddenly, there was a high pitched wizz. I heard the sound of metal hitting bone. A black had flew by and the priest's head fell to the ground with a thud. I could move again. I quickly removed the sewer grate and jumped in. I fell about 20 feet, landing hard. It was dark. I ran down a corridor blindly, sloshing through water with every step. I was afraid to turn around and look behind me, expecting to have six or seven priests following close behind. My heart was pounding and every muscle in my body wanted me to stop, but I couldn't. I pressed on, passing under gratings as I ran. After about fifteen minutes, I looked over my shoulder. There was no one behind me. I stopped, exhausted. I tried to catch my breath, but the foul stench in the sewer made it difficult not to vomit. I also didn't want to lean up against one of the walls. Why did become fatigued so quickly? When I was able to breath normally again, I continued. I could see a glimmer of light from around a corner. I continued to walk at a normal pace. My thoughts turned towards Lui Kang. He was dead, but at least his soul was not trapped by Shang Tsung. Then there was Kung Lao. By killing the priest, he probably saved my life. I wondered how he fared after I escaped. I felt a twinge of guilt for leaving him there. I hoped he had survived. I then remembered our fight, how he had teleported behind me. If I were in his position, that is how I would have escaped. I tried to reassure myself with this thought as I continued along to the light. As I neared the light, my eyes started to water. There was a strange odor in the air, and it didn't smell like the stench of sewage. It was a sharp, unfamiliar stinging smell. I continued towards the light. As I turned the corner, my lungs started to burn. The room I was in was lit by a strange yellowish luminescence that didn't really come from a single light source. From one door to the other stretched a path that was about four feet wide. On either side of the path was some sort of green liquid. My senses told me that it was the cause of the burning pain in my chest. I started to walk to the other side. I couldn't tell by looking at the green goo how deep it was. I also noticed that there were hooks hanging from the ceiling. I guess this room was used for some sort of torture. I started taking short, shallow breaths to ease the pain caused by the fumes. Suddenly, the doors both closed. There was a puff of smoke on the path in front of me, and another ninja appeared. He looked identical to me with one small difference, his uniform was a shade or two darker blue than my own. He jumped into a fighting stance. "Who are you?" I asked. "I am your death!" Whoever he was, he didn't sound like me. His voice was raspy. I wondered if it was because of all of the fumes. "No, it is not because of the fumes!" he said. His statement took my by surprise. I guess this ninja could read my mind. "Yes, I can read your mind!" Another foul creation of Shang Tsung? "No!" he said. "Shao Kahn created me!" It was really starting to make me uneasy. If this thing could read my mind, how was I supposed to fight it? "Round one. FIGHT!" I started off by sliding, trying to knock him into the green acid. I was stopped half way there. I just stopped. I couldn't move. I was frozen! It reminded me of all those times I used to fight with my brother. An uppercut to my head brought me back to reality. I landed and stood right back up. I threw a volley of punches at him, but he anticipated them, blocking all as I threw them. A side kick to my stomach staggered me back, knocking the air out of me. I fell back and inhaled deeply. Fire filled my lungs. The doppleganger came closer, ready to attack. As a last ditch effort, I let a roundhouse kick fly. Much to my surprise, it connected with his temple, sending him sprawling to the ground. I immediately did my jump-kick, ground freeze, uppercut slide combo and ended the round. "Sub-Zero wins." I guess when the predominant thought on my mind was pain, that was all he could read. I grinned, knowing my new strategy would not fail me. He stood back up, healed. "Round two. FIGHT!" I filled my lungs with the fumes and pain seared through my chest. I started feeling dizzy. Maybe this was not such a good strategy after all. The other ninja slid into my shins, knocking me backwards. He then tried it again, but I blocked. Before he could recover, I grabbed hold of his tunic and flipped him backwards. He hit the door before he hit the ground. I stood up and started punching. Every one of them hit. Blood sprayed forth from his mouth. Teeth flew everywhere, like popcorn. I then grabbed hold of him and flipped him again. He landed on the path with a thud, and instinctively stood back up again. He was in no condition to fight, though. "FINISH HIM!" I walked over, angled my punch and planted an uppercut on his chin. He flew backwards, landing in the green muck. I jumped back, trying to avoid getting any on me. "Sub-Zero wins. Fatality!" I looked for his body in the acid, but only a skeleton floated back to the surface. The doors opened, and I darted out. I started coughing. I inhaled deeply. The stench of the sewers was a lot preferable to that place. After the burning was gone, I continued. It didn't take me long to find the next sewer grate. I decided to take my chances back on the surface. Carefully removing it, I climbed out of the sewers. The room I entered was some sort of armory. Weapons were everywhere. Most of them seemed to be hand to hand weapons, such as spears, maces, swords, and the like. There was one notable exception. Along one of the walls, there was a rack of machine guns. I walked over to investigate. The guns were standard M-16 U.S. military issue. The ammo was gone, unfortunately. Along with each of the guns was a U.S. special forces identification tag. I read the names. Cirillo, Isa, Pickett, Heaton, Storch....I wondered who those people were. I then came across two I recognized, Lt. Sonya Blade and Major Jackson Briggs. So, Shao Kahn was holding some other hostages here as well. I put the tags back as I heard someone coming. Quickly, I darted into the shadows. Mileena walked into the room. "I know you are in here, Sub- Zero. I can smell you!" I guess the smell of sewage water sticks with you. I stepped out of the shadows. "So, Mileena, we meet again. I'm surprised they didn't send Baraka with you." She clenched her fists. "Baraka is dead. That little weasel Kung Lao killed him! You are next, Sub-Zero." "We shall see." We faced each other, ready to fight to the death..... More to come.......